[KCLam]

This is Pink Floyds Discovery Japanese box set. The CD was inside a crumpled plastic sleeve when I bought it.

The crumples has etched into the CD as it was left inside the sleeve over a long period, the CD is not playable due to the streaks on the surface of the CD.
The plastic have somewhat "melted" onto the disc surface, a chemical reaction of two plastic bonding, to use a crude scientific term to describe it.

I will have to spend the week going through my library to take out all the plastic sleeves.
Somehow the older plastic sleeves do not have this problem, or perhaps it was a different type of plastic used.

Any advice on how to remove the smears from the CD surface is appreciated..

[ACHiPo]

Bummer!  I've had success with paste car wax (something with some polish compound in it like Turtle Wax, et al) restoring some damaged CDs, but that was more for scratches.  Not sure if it would work on smudged/deformed plastic.

I assume you can't return it?

[RDavidson]

Damage, like you said, probably occurred over a long period of time and I wouldn't be surprised if heat and moisture played the biggest role in the problem. I once worked in a non-climate controlled distribution center for about 8 months to scrape by after graduating from college (here in the US) and it was HOT, HUMID, and miserable during the summer. I grew up in a blue collar household, so it's not like I'm intolerant of hard work in harsh conditions either. I can only imagine what distribution centers are like in other coutries.

[KCLam]

Spent the evening going through most of the Japanese pressed cardboard thin package CD's that would have a plastic CD sleeve for the disc, and there's a lot of it in my CD collection.

Thank goodness the only damage was a couple of  Pink Floyd Discovery discs that I'd probably buy replacements for the damaged ones to make the set complete.
Tried all means to clean the plastic smears from the surface of the disc, but the smears seems to be bonded into the plastic of the disc. I will continue to experiment with various cleaning agents.

Surprisingly, the earlier Japanese cardboard sleeve packaging (late 90's to early 2000) that also had plastic sleeves DID not caused any smearing of the CD's. I'd not take the risk, will replace with the cloth sleeves.



I still gave 14 packs of the plastic sleeves, and they did not come cheap...bummer



Also, if you have any video discs stored is a softer bendable plastic packaging (mainly Blurays), do check the condition of the discs over time.
A box set of "I Love Lucy" that was packaged in ultra thin bendable plastic DVD was all smeared with the melted plastic that reacted with the discs.

In summary, any packaging material that can crack or tear easily - hard shell plastic or paper is OK, any plastic that requires some force to tear or rip if apart will damage your discs over time.

Then again, like RD has commented, hot humid climates is probably the most likely cause of the problem.

[bacobits1]

In all my collection I have never seen music CD's packed like that.
Program CD or DVD I have and removed them to hard case's.
Interesting.